Just like many Caribbean singers, Rihanna has also borrowed words and phrases from other Caribbean languages in some of her earlier songs. This post was translated from Danish by Hannah Fedder Williams. The Danish post is an edited version of an article previously published on the site Modkraft.
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Special thanks to our many sponsors and funders. This site is licensed as Creative Commons Attribution 3. Please read our attribution policy to learn about freely redistributing our work Some Rights Reserved. Is Rihanna Barbadian or Jamaican? Jamaican Twitter claims the superstar as their own "Get RihannaisJamaican to trend and piss the Bajans off". Written by Emma Lewis. Posted 15 October GMT. Share this:. Categories Regions Caribbean Barbados Jamaica.
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Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved. Patois is very strong, everything is said with a lot of confidence!
Jamaican music is not an accent but a genre. Reggae, dancehall is performed globally by artists who do not even speak English much less the dialect of patois. You can see many performances of Jamaican music done by the most unlikely musicians, you can google it on YouTube. What is the issue here is ignorance of the genres of Jamaican music.
Lmfao most singers at woodstock during this time were incomprehensible??? Not everybody in the Caribbean speaks Patois. And not every Caribbean artist speaks Patois on their record, regardless of the nationality of the writer s. Ask yourself, why would a woman born and raised in Barbados speak Patois versus her own native Bajan language?
I actually do. Haitian to be exact. So yes… I have a very large clue. No, you literally do not have a clue. Why would Snow, born and raised in Canada, attempt Jamaican patois in his songs? Gentleman, born and raised in Germany? Dominic, born and raised in England? The list is literally endless. I see my inquiry pressed you.
So much so you have to use caps lock. And learn how to converse without calling people names on social media. Can you name me a single artist that is deliberately creating a Jamaican dancehall inspired track written by Jamaicans using patois on a rhythm that is a classic dancehall tune..
And stop with the digressions into my use of caps lock or calling you clueless when … Read more ». My thoughts exactly. But maybe she really is just speaking gibberish?
I had similar thoughts as well. Our thoughts are definitely on the same track. Speaking of obtuse…are you being deliberately obtuse here? The singer is a Bajan who loves dancehall and has done other dancehall flavoured songs in the past.
Beatboxing is gibberish? Whether or not they do a decent job of it, sure, that can be debated…but not the fact of what it is they are trying to do, which is a Jamaican dancehall tune.
Saying she is speaking Jamaican patios is a writer not having all their sources correct, especially if you are correcting other people. I doubt this article would be rewritten for its lack of knowledge of other West Indian islands since I guess we all speak the same, but it was a good effort.
If you want to be a resourceful blog to always do it correctly. The excuse that it is to make people have a conversation on misinformation would be false and ignorant. If you know Caribbean accents, then you know thats not a Bajan accent.
She is purposely trying to use a Jamaican accent. So should we all be pissed at Rihanna for her cultural appropriation? I am Barbadian. Her speech is decidedly Jamaican or at least Trinidadian,. That is not trini. She is a Bajan and should stick to her own and stop mocking other islanders which she fails terribly at. As someone else said, from day 1 she has been trying the Jamaican angle.
I do not know how Barbados has her as an ambassador when she has not sung one song in Bajan and could barely explain Bajan culture in an interview.
The rest of the Caribbean continuously fight to be not lumped as … Read more ». Even down to nicki minaj smfh… I feel like even if you born in a country and leave the next minute, it doesnt make you a complete native of that country because you have no value or even knowledge of that country… Nicki swears she has an accent… Its like what accent?
Shes pretty much american in terms of cultural values smfh?? So you are thinking another island and people will still disagree with you. My point is a lot of people when they hear dialects they assume Jamaica. All islands have similar heritage, but there are distinctions in the culture.
It sounds like english with island sauciness, never knew it was an actual dilect that can differ between islands. I was watching Paul Mooney on Netflix last night. This article has to be the most ignorant thing i have read. Probably as bad as the critics being written about for the level of ignorance. Rihanna is speaking her native island tounge. NOT Jamaican patois, im sure it sounds the same to American ears but its not.
Whoever wrote this should stick to what they know. The whole damn song is Jamaican. Nooo, Rihanna is speaking Jamaican not Bajan. Just like man-down she has chosen to use Jamaican influence. Jajaja do you remember Umbrella? Well i always think that with this kind of music the thing was the ritm, you know, but maybe the public of that kind of music has now this need to hear some content too.
Does it matter what accent she used? Too bad aryu min ha fu point this out. The fact that as a native Jamaican patois speaker I had to make an effort to decipher what u wrote is why it is matters. First of all patois is spoken across the Caribbean not just in Jamaica. Accents may differ from Island to Island as with dialect but there are a lot of similarities with the English speaking patois especially as our African Ancestors shared the same African languages.
So that makes it less significant? People want to talk smack when the radio is so whitewashed or cliche, and then roll their eyes when served something different. Thank you!!! We are on the same page. Its sad in folks still dont get it…and they white spend more time on our islands than we do.
Not sure how it is named in other countries. But that fact is that her language is perfectly fine. People claiming that the language […].
Get wit di program! You go RI-RI!!! SOS is a fairly okay remix. I respect her for how well she has done and for the attention she has brought to BIM when the economy is down. That makes more sense. I really wish she would just go all the way Bajan for me on at least one track. It just goes to show. We do what we do for us. It would be nice if they did, but its not necessary. It is gibberish.
If your target market is not known to understand said language, then you must expect them to react as such. I cant with this white privilege. While a lot in this systemically racist society is for white people, not everything is. You are discounting a language MANY people all over the world speak as gibberish and it is just disgusting.
Face the facts. Piss poor point, poignantly put! Do you need any more examples?! The version of Macarena that became popular in America was retooled and sung mostly in English, keeping the chorus in Spanish. Spanish being a language spoken by hundreds of millions of people and much more mainstream than patois. Music is art. I think people are taking this too seriously. Who cares? I like the song.
I listen to it while I work out. White people are a virus. Not really. I made this:. Actually, there is cross migration of this language throughout that island chain, so NO, it is not appropriation. Thank you. But Barbados is not Jamaica. She is not Jamaican. Cross migration, sure. South Korea is about half the distance from Japan that Barbados is from Jamaica, but we differentiate between the Japanese and Korean languages. Also, what about Drake?
Yes there are independent countries and cultures, however Caribbean culture is extremely connected and is shared throughout the entire region. It is not cultural appropriation in the slightest bit. Also, Drake is from Toronto.
You clearly are not familiar with the city, but it has a massive Caribbean population that has influenced the way a lot of people speak and the slang used in the city.
You can easily pick out a Toronto accent from the way it has … Read more ». Every Bajan who posted on this thread is a fool. Jamaicans are not the only one that speak patios broken English but to you all it sounds the same. People ask me all the time you sound Jamaican ummmm no I sound like a vincy. Gets your facts straight before you decide to call people fools while talking about their own cultures.
However, this is not one of those cases. It is a song written by a Jamaican. Plus influenced by a Jamaican. I do understand that people can get upset that their culture is mistaken for Jamaican when it definitely is not but in this specific case it is Jamaican although she is a Bajan herself. She is not even Jamaican. Please educate before you release an article like this. The song is nonsense…period!!!
Leave it at that! Caribbean people dont need no more crap associated with them! Always trying to bring down the culture and its like Jamaica is the only island you know…until you bloodclot wanna take cruises to warm places. Remove the lyrics and we have a hot beat, that.. Seek help. This is clearly a Jamaican Dancehall inspired track on an originally Jamaican dancehall riddim with lyrics that are specific to patois and dancehall.
You might want to watch the video, and maybe do some research into the writing and producing. I agree with some of the views already written de author Black Girl with Long Hair need to do some more research into the island of Barbados, we are not Jamaican we Bajan local people have our own dialect called Bajan so sorry not Jamaican dialect happening here.
The whole song is Jamaican dancehall inspired. However its hard to distinguish an Antiguan accent from a Jamaican accent sometimes guyanese too. Dont be jealous tho Rih loves her Barbados.
I only shake my head because most are confused and clueless and h hardly know what constitutes a language.. I have. Too many people are arguing over a misunderstanding. By calmly explaining to people what patois is and its background instead of calling … Read more ». I am an American and I recognized it, do you mean white? No one is obligated to teach you anything…go out and find out.
Basically white people get a free pass on cultural appropriation, and making demeaning comments, by pleading ignorance I recognize that the American education system is very much at fault, but their comes an age and their comes a time like when encyclopaedias are at the tips of your fingers via … Read more ».
Nicely thought out comment! When I first heard the song I definitely thought it was gibberish. Did a quick search and got educated on this patois language and went from being annoyed to pretty impressed with the song and Rihanna. The same could be said about Americans.. BY a native of the West Indies.. How insulting. Everyone in the Caribbean hates when people mistake our individual culture as being Jamaican. Get it right. I understand people finding it annoying when their culture is credited as Jamaican however it was written by a Jamaican so this is not one of the cases.
You summed it up perfectly. There is no question that this is a nod to Jamaican dancehall culture. Sorry jealous Bajans and their apologist Vincy friends lmaoo!! Yes she is Bajan and Guyanese but the song was written and produced by a Jamaican. Its obviously patois when you listen.
Its clearly shows a strong Jamaican influence. Not to mention the fact that the riddim is Jamaican in origin, and the lyrics were written by. Thank you so much for this! Love this song and love your work! Jamaican here. Just to clarify, the entire caribbean speaks patois. The song is very striped down … Read more ».
Well yes she is Bajan but the song was written by a fellow Jamaican and so she is speaking Jamaican patois. Wrong she is chatting in the song. It was written and sang by a jamaican. The song was given to her thats why she is chatting in it. So yeah she maybe bajan but the song is reggae.
Im from St. Lucia we speak St. Lucian patois and we are forever told its Jamaican. If your going to write an article at least get your facts right and do your research.
Ignorance is … Read more ». While Genius did us the favor of annotating the song on the surface, BlackGirlLongHair gave us deeper linear interpretations. I love that she rocks her hertitage in this song!
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